a. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to processing integrated circuits and specifically to analyzing data from a test vehicle for process improvement and control.
b. Description of the Background
The miniaturization of integrated circuits is progressing at a very fast pace. As integrated circuits become smaller and smaller, much of the development effort is devoted to developing efficient and reliable inspection tools.
Optical testing is often performed during various stages of the manufacturing process of an integrated circuit in order to monitor the manufacturing process. This type of nondestructive testing may identify defects that may or may not cause an integrated circuit to fail. The accuracy of these inspection tools is important to produce quality product with good yields. If the inspection tools identify too many defects that do not cause functional failures, otherwise good integrated circuits may be rejected causing yields to drop. If the inspection tools miss some defects that cause the circuit to fail, opportunities for yield improvement may be lost.
It would therefore be useful to provide a system and method for analyzing the performance of optical inspection of integrated circuits. It would also be useful if such a system were able to provide some calibration feedback to the optical inspection system.